Boxer's Daughter Joins Fight Against Hunger

29 October 2009

Khaliah Ali at Mfubwana school, where she was able to see a WFP school meal programme providing food for 600 children every school day.

Khaliah Ali is not just in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to celebrate her famous father’s ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in Kinshasa against George Foreman 35 years ago – she has also taken the time to make a detour to Katanga province, where she visited projects run by the UN World Food Programme and UNICEF.

KINSHASA -- During her visit to Mfubwana school on the outskirts of Lubumbashi, Khaliah was able to see a WFP school meal programme providing food for 600 children every school day.

“It is really striking to hear these children’s stories,” she said after the visit. “Without this lunch provided by WFP they would just have one meal a day – when they go home in the evening.”

Khaliah also gave a hand to a group of mothers who were preparing maize meal for the children.

Children in this particular school, supported by UNICEF and WFP, are often left alone at home for several days at a time as their parents head to their fields in a tireless effort to make a living. Elder children take care of their brothers and sisters and the WFP school meals programme is a major source of food intake for them.

In Katanga province, WFP provided meals for more than 145,000 school children in 2008, most of them children of families who have returned home after years of displacement because of conflict.

It will be 35 years since the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ on October 30.

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This requires comprehensive efforts to ensure that every man, woman and child enjoy their Right to Adequate Food; women are empowered; priority is given to family farming; and food systems everywhere are sustainable and resilient.